WEEK 2: DOWN IN THE VALLEY

Walker Evans, Hitchhikers, Vicksburg (vicinity), March 1936

DOWNLOADS. Continue listening to the first three downloads (all the songs in tan songbook and gray songbook). Pick out songs that you'd to do together in class. And sing them so that hyou learn the lyrics...

READING. Start with both the Lomax selections in Reader, pps 1-32. I want you to consider "voice"--who's speaking and why--and (most importantly) how. Don 't be put off by the language from the time when these pieces were written. And don't dismiss it! It tells us a LOT about where the sings come from--that is, how we have them now... The first, Alan Lomax's 1960 book introduction will give you good overview of the "folksong" world as he saw it at the outset of the 1960s folk revival--to which the Lomax's work made an important contribution. (Remember, Alan Lomax and his father, John Lomax made those early field recordings of the songs--that's how we have Leadbelly and many others...)

ONLINE NOTEBOOKS. Several of you have not yet sent me your blog url--active link to your homepage. Get it to me this week without fail. Everyone should post their first project (FIRST SONG) with your own discussion of how you got there. The work in class in many cases was quite good--likewise our group discussion, which should give you some ideas on how to write about your work...

PROJECT.  Down in the Valley, one of the most mysterious of our songs--even though it seems quite straightforward. The verses you have were "assembled" by John and Alan Lomax. Another version of the song goes by the title Birmingham Jail. The Lomax version is a combination of the two.


Make a visual response to the song. Personal component and cultural stream component, as discussed in class. Some of both? Medium is open, but see if you can get at the expressive qualities of the song--the space, the time, the feelings involved...

Let your hand show...

The Cumberland Gap

____

The following is a quick sampler to get you started. I expect you to follow your own path using the RESOURCES archives which we got a start with in class.

Darby & Tarlton-Birmingham Jail - YouTube  1927
Burl Ives - 08 - Down in the Valley - YouTube   
The classic folkways master... also an actor--something we should discuss. 1958?
Andy Griffith - Down In The Valley - YouTube  
1950s American tv. Consider... You Angelinos, see also Gene Autry recorded on Okeh...

And here are two Max Hunter Archive recordings (Ollie Gilbert apparently did not record this song):
http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=264  
Rev. Harold Hunter and Max Hunter, Max Hunter Folk Song Collection
http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=489  
Jimmy Morris, Max Hunter Folk Song Collection

And then, from a different perspective entirely...

Down in the Valley, the Ikettes version:  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JK1BaPUT44
That's Tina Turner when she was still with Ike. Ask me for stories on this.

Solomon Burke - Down In The Valley - YouTube 1965
The song returned to it's souce--by the EMPEROR... Solomon Burke passed away two years ago--and a lot of his material is no longer up on YouTube. Nevertheless, his version of the song is really worth paying attention--how he re-incorporated Down In the Valley into his own soul-singer world. He also tells a powerful story about  performing the song in Louisiana at what  turned out to be a Ku Klux Klan event. (Last thing Solomon Burke expected--he told his band--"No matter what happens, just keep on playin'...") Look into this to see another aspect of American social history--a difficult one--and its connection to the music...  Otis Redding does a similar version... And you have the Ikettes, above (Tina Turner). And Leadbelly, of couse, late 1940s.

American Song and Smithsonian Archives. I made a separate most for the Archive material. Following.